Second Amendment

In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has handed gun rights advocates a string of stunning victories, ruling for the first time in American history that the Second Amendment of the Constitution guarantees an individual’s right to own a gun. Yet the Second Amendment remains the most misunderstood and explosive part of the Bill of Rights, which has grown only more contentious after a series of horrific mass shootings. Now, Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, presents a provocative, often surprising, and much-needed history of this brief, but momentous, constitutional provision in The Second Amendment: A Biography (Simon & Schuster; May 20, 2014; $24.00).

Recent Research

This Article is the first comprehensive empirical analysis of post- Heller Second Amendment doctrine. Beginning with a set of more than one thousand Second Amendment challenges, we have coded every available Second Amendment opinion—state and federal, trial and appellate—from Heller up until February 1, 2016.

This volume is a sample of the Brennan Center's work on all fronts in the fight for democracy and justice in 2017. Material is drawn from Brennan Center reports, policy proposals, and issue briefs, in addition to public remarks, legal briefs, congressional testimony, and op-ed pieces written by Brennan Center staff and fellows.